Sunday, March 29, 2015

I
thought I had come to the end of our series on questions as now I plan to turn
to Holy Week and Easter.

And
then I listened to Thought for the Day on Friday morning.

It
was the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mervitz, and he began like this …

“A Rabbi was once asked, Why do Jews
always answer a question with a question?

He replied, “Well, why not?”

Mayoutics is the name given to
learning through asking challenging questions: the term comes from the Greek
meaning mid wife.

Socrates argued that enquiry is the
greatest tool we have to give birth to knowledge.

The best selling author, Warren
Berger in his latest book, Four Beautiful Questions, the power of enquiry to
spark break-through ideas demonstrates that the most creative and successful
people tended to be expert questioners.
By mastering the art of enquiry, they raise the questions no one else is
asking and find the answers everyone else is seeking.

Next week Jewish families around the
world will be celebrating the festival of Passover at home, sitting around a
dining table at a wonderful service called a Seder, where we recount our
miraculous exodus from slavery in Egypt some three thousand years ago.

The key participants at our Seder
tables will be the children.

The Passover story is told in
response to the questions we encourage our children to ask.

As a result Passover could be dubbed
the Festival of Questions.

Our tradition considers it a sacred
task to inspire children to ask, probe and explore.

We take their questions
seriously. We respond by drawing on the
healthy debate of our sages over many centuries, vibrant arguments that
continue to challenge our intellect.

To question is not a rejection. Rather, it is seen by our intensely
discursive tradition as a way of refining our understanding of the truth and
the part we must play in the universe.

Successful entrepreneurs will tell
you that companies in their infancy start out by asking lots of questions. Unfortunately they ask fewer and fewer
questions as time goes on.

To succeed we must keep thinking in
an inquisitive and challenging way, through continuously seeing the everyday
world around us through fresh eyes and curious minds,

Questions can challenge assumptions
and become the starting point of breath-taking innovation.

Asking the right question can produce
a life-changing moment.

For example, instead of asking a
demoralising question such as ‘why does this always happen to me?’ one can ask
an empowering question such as ‘how can I use this experience to contribute to
the lives of others’

Insightful questions motivate us more
than resolutions

If you understand how to ask the
right question you are more than half way to the answer.

Sometimes
the questioning runs out.

Stuff
happens that makes it hard to find the will to ask the right kind of question.

Maybe
it is at that moment that Jesus has just the right question to ask of us.

We
cannot get to Easter and the joy of resurrection without walking through the
pain of Holy Week.

I
hope we can take the opportunity to make that journey this week.

Take
time for quiet reflection, maybe as this service finishes and share in our
outside experience of Easter.

Go
to the garden and to the courtyard, to the cross and to the grave … and
discover through the pain a pathway to the newness of life that Christ brings.

Come
to one or other of our reflective services as we gather together on Maundy
Thursday to reflect on a body broken and blood shed for us.

Come to the foot of the cross on Good Friday morning and walk through the town
centre from Mid day.

Join
us at the Quarry Car Park as we go up Cleeve hill to mark the start of Easter
Day at 8-00, join us for breakfast and for our services next Sudnay.

In
your mind’s eye live the journey as it brings you to new life as well.

Is
thee one question to ask that opens the way to something new for you?

Or
is there a question Jesus might ask of you.

As
I was reflecting on Holy Week and sharing in that walk from the Garden of
Gethsemane to the courtyard, from the cross to resurrection, one element in the
story came to my mind … that I felt was helpful and could be helpful to us all.

I
want us to walk that walk with Peter.

Not
once, not twice, but three times in the Garden Jesus asked Peter and James and
John to pray.

Not
once, not twice, but three times they could not stay awake and watch and pray.

It
seems so simple.

In
so many instances in our lives, maybe facing difficult times, difficult
choices, difficult circumstances, maybe facing unexpected illness, things that
weigh us down or bring us low, we know there is a call to pray.

And
yet we find we cannot.

The prayer won’t come.

Like
Peter we fail.

In
the moment in the garden the failure
isn’t resolved.

It’s
left there. Hanging.

But
in spite of his failure Peter moves on.

We
move to the Courtyard.

Not
once, not twice, but three times,

Peter
is recognised.

You
also were with Jesus the Galilean.

This
man was with Jesus of Nazareth

Certainly,
you are one of them for your accent betrays you.

Not
once, not twice, but three times

Peter
is adamant

I
do not know what you are talking about

I
do not [expletive deleted] know the man

I
do not [multiple expletives deleted] know the man.

Not
once, not twice, but three times

A
denial

And
at that moment the cock growed.

Then
Peter remembered what Jesus had said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me
three times.” And he went out and wept
bitterly.

Are
there moments when we are not willing to own up to being followers of Jesus.

It’s
easier to keep quiet.

We
don’t want to get involved.

We
don’t want to take a stand.

We
don’t want to know him, Jesus our Lord.

We
let God down, we let Jesus down, we let ourselves down …

And
deep down we can feel the bitterness of the tears.

But
in spite of his failures Peter moves on.

He’s
there when news comes of the empty tomb.

He’s
beaten in the chase by the younger John, but he sees for himself the tomb is
empty.

And
in that upper room, he sees for himself.

And
knows, Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.

And
it is on his home stomping ground, around the fishing boats of his beloved
Galilee he meets Jesus one more time.

Not
once, not twice, but three times

Jesus
asks a question.

Simon,
Son of John, do you love me more than these?

Simon,
Son of John, do you love me?

Simon,
Son of John, do you love me?

Not
once, not twice, but three times, Peter answers

Yes,
Lord, you know that I love you

Yes,
Lord; you know that I love you.

Lord,
you know everything, you know that I love you.

That’s
what Jesus asks of us.

Not
perfection.

Not
an ability to pray no matter the circumstances

Not
a commitment that is flawless

That’s
what Jesus asks of us

Do
you love me?

It
is as we reply not once, not twice but three times, and simply affirm our love
for Jesus that somehow the failings in prayer, the failings in commitment are
knocked on the head – and a way of following Jesus opens up for us.

But
what thing more remains.

Not
once, not twice, but three times

Jesus
had something for Peter to do.

Feed
my lambs

Tend
my sheep

Feed
my sheep

That’s
it … that’s the task – to bring that kind of caring love to others – for in
doing that we make Christ’s love come alive.

|It
takes me back to those questions … and that thought for the day.

Asking the right question can produce
a life-changing moment.

For example, instead of asking a
demoralising question such as ‘why does this always happen to me?’ one can ask
an empowering question such as ‘how can I use this experience to contribute to
the lives of others’

Insightful questions motivate us more
than resolutions

If you understand how to ask the
right question you are more than half way to the answer.

Maybe
that’s the most insightful question of all, how can I use this experience to
contribute to the lives of others and feed those sheep?

Sunday, March 22, 2015

I
spotted it on Tuesday evening. I have a
weather app on my phone that told me there was to be a major magnetic storm,
registering 7 on the kp index. That’s
high. It’s usually 1,2, or 3 … I had
never seen it so high.

I
instantly went to another app from NASA called Space weather. That enables you to access live pictures from
the NASA telescopes that are trained on the sun. You can then put pictures from the last 48
hours together into a mini video. And
there you could see it – massive prominences coming off the sun.

What
did not occur to me was that there might be a stunning Aurora Borealis to be
seen. And there in the Echo a couple of
days later was a spectacular photograph taken on Cleeve hill of the Northern
Lights.

So
near and yet so far. I could have gone
and had a look!

What
a missed opportunity.

At
least we caught the solar eclipse on Friday, projectred in the most wonderful
of ways through a Colander that’s something of a family heirloom.

When
Brian Cox tried to explain the Northern Lights in his book and TV programme the
Wonders of the Solar System he found the scientific language inadequate to
describe the wonders of what he saw. He
turned instead to ancient Nordic stories that told of dancing lights – because
somehow it was through the imagination of the story-teller that the wonder was
best communicated.

For
me, something similar happens when we come to think of the cross of Christ.

Today,
a fortnight before Easter, is Passion
Sunday, the Sunday when churches often focus on the story of the passion, the
cross of Christ. In this evening’s
service we are going to do just that.

We
mark Passion Sunday today with a special service this evening that takes us on
the journey Jesus made to Jerusalem, to his death and to his resurrection. We are going to tell the story of that
journey from Luke’s Gospel as we are reading through Luke’s gospel on Sunday
evenings. We are going to tell the story
in words and music with readings shared by the choir. Our service will be very much in the style of
and in the spirit of the many services Diana has put together over the years
for Passion tide. Indeed, we shall be
using prayers and readings that Diana has used at such services over the years.

It’s
not inappropriate as Diana, her mother and her family placed the cross at the
front of the church in memory of her father, Talvan Rees.

One
approach to understanding the cross of Christ is to use the language of doctrine with very precise
meanings, almost a kind of scientific approach that spells out exactly what
Jesus accomplished through his death.

I
don’t find that helpful.

Indeed.
I find it positively unhelpful.

In
the cross of Christ, indeed in the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ
something happens that is a mystery, it is a wonder, it is something at the
very heart of the faith that cannot be defined in the quasi scientific language
that traditional Christian doctrine sometimes uses.

I
find sometimes that it is in story telling that something of the immensity of
what happened is conveyed. I love the
story telling of C.S.Lewis in the Narnia Chronicles and especially in the Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Once
C.S.Lewis was asked who Aslan was. He
gave a very indirect answer … but you cannot help but recognise so much of the
story of Christ. All sorts of things are
there.

That
wonderful feeling as Aslan is near.

The
strength.

There
is a battle and an apparent defeat.

Yet
the victory finally is Aslan’s.

It’s
as if on the cross the battle between good and evil, God and the reality of
evil comes to its climax – at first it seems to be defeat – but then it becomes
a great victory.

Thanks
be to God, says Paul at the end of 1
Corinthians 15 when he has explored the meaning of the life, death and
resurrection of Christ, Thanks be to God who gives us the victory thourh our
Lord Jesus Christ.

Talk
of the cross of Chrsit as the moment of the victory of Christ over all that is
evil was the way the cross was understood for a 1000 years.

It’s
a powerful image.

But
then … Aslan is slain on the stone table – there are echoes of sacrficice. The Lion becomes a lamb in one of the later
Narnia Chronicles and as John the Baptist says, Behold the lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.

There
is a strong sense in the days of the bible that we live in a broken world –
broken relationships, broken society, broken nations, a broken relationship
with God.

To
set things right people turned to sacrifice – in all sorts of different ways,
to say thanks, to bring freedom in the Passover lamb, one of the common threads
in the tradition of sacrifice is that it is about restoring broken
relationships, and the brokenness of the relationship we have with God.

That’s
the sense you have as Aslan is slain … that in a perverse way, what happens
sets things right, restores things that are broken.

Thinking
of the death of Christ people speak of it as atonement, an old English word
that really can be broken down into its constituent parts – at – one – ment

John
pointed at Jesus and said, Behold the lamb of God. Jesus broke bread and shared a cup around the
time of the Passover and went to his death according to John’s gospel around
the time the Passover lambs were sacrificed.

The
focal point for the presence of God with his people was in the Temple – and in
the holiest of holy places – that presence of God can only be accessed as
animals were sacrificed. Their screams
would have filled the sky and the stench would have been awful.

At
that point Jesus body is broken, his blood is shed. And now there is no longer need for any more
sacrifices because this is the once-and-for all sacrifice that means the
relationship with God is restored, the veil of the temple is torn apart and we
can enter into the very presence of God with the confidence of faith, the
assurance of hope and a readiness to put our faith and hope into action in
love.

We
come to the foot of the cross and hear Jesus say to us even now, Father,
forgive them … and we know that forgiveness is real. This is love, as John said in 1 John 4, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be an atoning
sacrifice for our sins, the means by which our sins are forgiven.

This
is wonderful .. it’s a mystery.

And
it is most wonderfully communicated in the story telling of the Narnia
Chronicles and in The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe – do join us on Saturday
afternoon if you can!

It’s
a mystery

It’s
beyond all our imagining.

It’s
a life

It’s
a death

It’s
a resurrection

So
come to Narnia

The
magic world where

Aslan
is king

And
discover that that life,

That
death, that resurrection

Changes
everything.

But
there is more to this life, death and resurrection than that

Someone
has asked the question that we are considering today … When in his life did
Jesus realise that he came to die as a sacrifice?

I’m
not altogether sure he did.

I
have a feeling that was one way, and only one way that people following in his
footsteps saw what had happened.

There
are others too.

Follow
the story of Jesus in the Gospels and something else can be seen as well.

There
comes a point in Luke’s telling of the story of Jesus when for the first time
Jesus speaks about his impending death.
Luke’s not the first to notice that – Mark had done before him, and
Matthew also tells the story in the same way.

It’s
the climax to the first part of the story of Jesus. He takes time out, as Mark and Matthew make
clear, near the Herodian Roman city of
Caesarea Philippi to check how effectively his work of proclaiming the
good news of the Kingdom of God and bringing healing to hurting people is
going.

‘Do
the crowds get it?’ is the question he asks of the disciples.

Yes,
indeed they do!

The
have come to see that Jesus has brought to fulfilment the whole line of the prophets that stretches back to
Elijah and beyond. He has come to usher
in God’s rule on earth just as God’s earth prevails on heaven.

A
prophet, he is yet more than a prophet.
He is the anointed one of God who is King in the Kingdom of God.

It’s
at that point that Peter and the disciples are excited, expecting him to be an
all-conquering hero Messiah. But Jesus thinks
differently and explains he is to be rejected, he is to suffer, he is to be
killed … and on the third day rise again from the dead.

Three
times Jesus describes his the climax to his life in terms of his suffering, his
death and his resurrection.

It’s
as if he is working out and bringing to fulfilment the role he had taken on
from John the Baptist of the prophet.
That’s how he had described himself the very first time he taught in the
synagogue in Nazareth.

As
Jesus draws near to Jerusalem he has no doubt about what he is doing. He is absolutely clear. He is going head to head with the powers that
be … challenging the very nature of the worldly understanding of power and
offering a totally different way of understanding God’s rule in the world,
God’s kingdom.

At
that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for
Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me,
“Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and
on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must
be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from
Jerusalem.”

Jesus
thinks of his own impending death as something that fulfils all the prophets
are about.

Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to
it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers
her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to
you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,
“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’

When
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey that was a massive prophetic
act that said, God’s way of ruling is totally different from the world’s way of
thinking.

When
he turned the Herodian money changers out of the temple that was a massive
prophetic act that said, God’s house should be a house of prayer, not the den
of thieves the powers that be of his generation had turned it into.

He
knew full well that going head to head with the powers that be would have one
outcome.

And
this is where Jesus, great prophet that he was, was more than a prophet. Peter too had got it right when he had said,
You are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God. But Jesus was not going to be the warrior
messiah who would overthrow Rome by might of arms. He would be the suffering servant messiah who
would bring the kingdom of heaven down to earth and see that God’s will was
done on earth as it is in heaven in a very different way.

This
Jesus walks a walk of love and compassion that doesn’t make sense in the
world’s terms, but is life-transforming for all those who take it seriously.

This
Jesus walks a walk that takes him through the suffering of the valley of the
shadow of death, that plumbs the depths of god-forsakenness … a walk that draws
him to resurrection and the presence of God’s eternal love.

His
life, his death and his resurrection open up for us the way into the presence
of the God who is love – it’s a way that we can follow as we live a life of
love for one another.

This
is nothing other than the way of the cross.

Wow,
it’s a mystery.

Maybe
we can only sense it by telling the story

On
Tuesday we are having Messy Church – a celebration for Easter.

It’s
the first time we are going to have our Experience Easter outside to
share. Then from then through to the
week after Easter we are going to have four places around the grounds of the
church that simply invite us to re-live the story of the life of Jesus as it
reaches its climax in death and resurrection.
They are, if you like, living pictures of the Easter story.

For
it is as we put ourselves in the picture and re-live that story that the Cross
of Christ becomes part of us and transforms our lives.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

In the next of our series responding to questions asked by our Congregation, Karen, our Discipleship Ministry leader took as her starting point 1 Corinthians 1:20-31

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

Two "Don't
Worries"

On reading many of the Big Questions that were provided back in January,
I found myself wanting to say two words - don't
worry - but especially with today's
question:

What do I /should I say to non-believers when
they ask difficult questions, like why does God let murder happen?

Firstly, I want to say don't worry
through sympathy because I've been in plenty of situations where I've been
asked difficult questions and haven't known what to say. It is often very
difficult when put "on the spot" at work, with friends, neighbours or
family members. However, being asked questions is a normal part of being a Christian in the world. In the 1 Corinthians
v20-31 passage Paul says that

Jews look for signs and Greeks look for
wisdom

implying that in his day, different groups of people were searching for
answers in different ways too.

But secondly, I want to say don't
worry because today's question includes the word should

What do I /should I say to non-believers when they ask difficult questions,
like why does God let murder happen?

The word should implies that
there is a standard, right and proper "good Christian" answer that we
should be able to give whenever
called upon to respond which inevitably leads to feelings of inadequacy and
guilt because none of us can instantly give this perfect answer every time.

I'm not sure where the word should
comes from but I suspect that our families, schools and society can put
expectations on us growing up or we put other expectations on ourselves and somehow
these get transferred into our beliefs about God and Christian faith. Paul says
the direct opposite - he explicitly said that God chose the Christians in the
Corinthian church because they weren'twise and didn't have all the answers themselves:

Consider your own call brothers and sisters:
not many of you were wise by human standards, not many of you were powerful,
not many were of noble birth but God chose what is foolish in the world to
shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to share the strong.

As in so many New Testament passages, Paul shows us that God knows we're
not perfect but uses us nevertheless. God's kingdom is counter-cultural and upside-down.
In God's kingdom's it's the ones who realise their lack of wisdom who God can use in a way that the self-assured and
self-wise can't.

What do the un-wise have that the worldly wise don't? How can God use
them? Paul says that as Christians

we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling
block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles

The un-wise realise their inadequacy and dependence on Christ. When we
do that we shift the whole way we respond to others. We know longer think
there's a right answer that we should provide but can learn to trust Jesus
"in the moment".

Two Hierarchies

The question seems to imply a trickle down hierarchy of wisdom like that
on the left, where answers flow from God to good church goers/Christian
believers and on to unbelievers we might meet, with criminals at the bottom. Whereas
I think Paul is teaching us that the real wisdom hierarchy is like the one on
the right - us, the people we meet, criminals, whatever are all "in it
together" like the hierarchy on the right. As human beings we all sin and
need God's grace and forgiveness whether
we've broken the criminal law or not.

At communion we often say words which express our need of Christ

Come to this table, not because you must but because you may.

Come, not because you are strong, but because you are weak.

Come, not because any goodness of your own gives you a right to come
but because you need mercy and help.

Come, because you love the Lord a little and would like to love him
more.

Come, because he loved you and gave himself for you.

Come, when you are fearful, to be made new in love.

Come when you are doubtful, to be made strong in faith.

Come , when you are regretful, to be made whole.

Come, old and young, there is room for all at the Lord's table.

My Answer

It was some time after I'd chosen to preach on this question that I
realised a particular significance for me. I have met some female murderers and
those convicted of manslaughter and other crimes. They haven't got forked tails
and horns but look just like us. And they
ask difficult questions too and, perhaps more interesting, they can provide
insights which can help us.

Journalists write clever slogans about murder and other crimes but often
the story behind the headlines is much more complicated. When I led prison
bible studies, the women liked a series about the story of Joseph best. Joseph felt abandoned by God when he was in prison in Egypt and their instinct
was the same. However, I don't think the feeling is restricted to those
"on the inside". When awful
things happen and we hear about atrocities, we can feel a sense of abandonment
too.

Joseph's case was complex, with many reasons why he was in prison:

·jilted Potiphar's wife wanted revenge

·Potiphar was too busy with his work and not
attentive enough to his wife

·human traffickers took Joseph into Egypt and
sold him as a slave, but that was only after his jealous brothers nearly killed
him

·but Joseph must have been a terribly sibling
himself, continually boasting about his superiority

·and Jacob favoured one wife and her children
over others which was always likely to cause trouble

·Jacob's mother Rebecca deceived her husband
Isaac and both their parents made mistakes too and so on and so on back to the
beginning of the bible where Adam and Eve turn away from God and think they can
do things better themselves on their own

So my personal answer to the
question about murder is that God gives each one of us the freedom to make choices
and make mistakes and each one of us is affected by the choices we make and the
choices others make which affect us - for good and ill - including murderers,
you and me. We all sin and are affected by sin and only Jesus, the sinless one,
could break the cycle by coming to earth and absorbing the hurt on our behalf.

That's my answer to the difficult question about murder - a variation of
Romans 3: 22 for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - and it
chimes with Jesus' response to the woman caught in adultery too when he told
her to sin no more but also challenging her accusers about their own sin.

How I would respond

However, I wouldn't always respond to the question in the same way.
Going back to the two wisdom hierarchies and realising our own limitations can
stop us concentrating on our own predicament and leave us free me to think what
the other person needs in a
situations. There isn't a "one size fits all" answer for all
circumstances.

There may be times when a pastoral response is appropriate and it's best
to say nothing but show support or ask:

·is there a particular situation that's on
your mind?

or times when it's best
to dampen conflict

·shall we talk later when things are a bit
calmer?

·Do you really want to know what I think or
are you just trying to have an argument?

And you can don't have to be personal, you can draw on other sources:

·Jesus tells a story about a woman caught in
adultery ...

·The Question Course says that God knows what
suffering is like, because he himself suffered loss

But sometimes you just have to be brave and open your mouth and give an
answer that's honest and authentic for you at that particular time.

There are some practical tips:

·read the bible, listen in church, try to
understand the words of the hymns and these will come to mind in different situations

·pray that God will help you in that moment

·keep conversations grounded in Jesus rather than abstract philosophy
about God

·but mainly just open your mouth and trust
that God will use you for his purposes and help you find helpful words as Jesus
promises us.

Don't worry - God chose what is foolish in the world to
shame the wise

Sunday, March 8, 2015

For
the first Sunday Special of the year we planned to get people to think of all
those questions that intrigue, perplex, interest you about faith, God and life
itself.

Little
did we think that 48 hours before atrocities would be committed in Paris that
shocked the world.

No
wonder that Sunday that people asked lots of difficult troubling questions
about the troubled world we are all too conscious of. Why is so much war and so much terror linked
with religion, where is God in such a troubled world. The questions came thick and fast.

And
over the next two or three weeks those were the kinds of questions we
addressed. We went on to look at other
troubling questions too.

In
February’s Sunday Special we found ourselves reflecting on the way the Psalms
touch our emotions not just with songs of praise but with poems of lament too.

It
tied in with the program we have been following since last September. We have been using a DVD and set of resources
produced by Fischy Music Bring it All to Us.
They are a collection of songs for all ages based on emotions expressed
in the psalms.

It’s
good to give children access to this wonderful collection of prayers and songs
in the Bible, not least because so many of them are laments.

In
some ways it’s troubling to share difficult psalms of despair with children …
but in other ways very timely and appropriate.
Our children live in the same world as we do … they have times of strain
and stress as they are put under all sorts of pressures at school … and all of
them will be alongside children in their schools with very troubling and
difficult problems, often mental health problems. It can be difficult for them as our adult
world has chosen all too often not to address child mental health problems as child
mental health services have taken a back seat when it comes to funding and
general provision.

A
fortnight and more ago Felicity, Andrea and I turned to making plans for
today’s Sunday Special.

I for
one have had enough of troubling questions.

I
wanted to go for something that was calmer, quieter, something uplifting and
positive. Something in a word ‘nice’.

It’s
all well and good being absorbed with the troubles of the world, but there is
so much to celebrate and so much to rejoice in … let’s have that as our focus
today.

And
so we homed in on the song we sang earlier in the service.

It’s
a lovely song that captures the warmth of a God who cares for us with a care
and a love that will not let us down.

It’s
a song that’s inspired by a set of Psalms that all use one particular image.

Psalms
57, 61, 63, 91

Psalm
57

In
the shadow of your wings I find protection,

until
the raging storms are over

61,

Let
me live in your sanctuary all my life

Let me
find safety under your wings

63,

As I
lie in bed, I remember you;

All
night long I think of you

Because
you have always been my help

In teh
shadow of your wings I sing for joy

I
cling to you

And
your hand keeps me safe

He
will cover you with his wings

you
will be safe in his care;

His
faithfulness will protect and defend you.

Psalm
91

Whoever
goes to the LORD for safety,

whoever
remains under the protection of the Almighty,

2can say to him,

“You
are my defender and protector.

You
are my God; in you I trust.”

3He will keep you
safe from all hidden dangers

and
from all deadly diseases.

4He will cover you
with his wings;

you
will be safe in his care;

his
faithfulness will protect and defend you.

God
will put his angels in charge of you

to
protect you wherever you go.

12They will hold you
up with their hands

to
keep you from hurting your feet on the stones.

It’s
a lovely image of God taking us under
his wing.

And
sometimes we need that image, that sense of the protection and the love of God.

And
this has been just such a week.

We
have been thinking of Dick since he was taken ill before Christmas. Diana has worked her socks off to get Dick an
appropriate place in a care home where he could be looked after and receive the
care he needs.

On
Monday morning I received a text to say an interview with Dick had been
arranged for Wednesday morning and he would be admitted to the Grange on Pilley
Lane on Thursday.

And
then it came as a tremendous shock to hear on Tuesday morning that Diana had
collapsed and died.

Our
thoughts and prayers are very much with Dick and with Lesley and Wayne, Thomas
and Samuel, and with Graham and Sheryl and Bethan too.

It
felt touch and go for a while whether Dick would actually move … and then on Thursday
afternoon Lesley and Graham were able to move their father into a room in the
Grange.

Our
hope and prayer is that Dick can settle there and be as well as he can be.

When
it came to turning to prepare the service for this morning, our theme had already
been chosen.

I
turned up those readings … and somehow they seemed to speak very much of the
care of God with us.

The
song too had a sense somehow of speaking very much into all that we were as a
church family feeling.

We your children

You
are the one who will call us

You
are the one who will draw us

You
will always be for us

You
are our God.

You
are the one who will find us

You
are the one who’s behind us

You
will always remind us

You
are our God.

We,
your children, come to you

We,
your children, run to you.

You
are the one who will lift us

You
are the one who forgives us

You
will always be with us

You
are our God.

You
are the one who will call us

You
are the one who will draw us

You
will always be for us

You
are our God.

We,
your children, come to you

We,
your children, run to you.

The
songs are interpreted in sign language – it’s been one of the wonderful
developments of the way we sing in church.
A lot of the actions we put to the songs we sing now use sign language,
often Makaton, and in this instance British Sign Language. It’s a really good way of getting into our
way of thinking signs that are full of deep meaning for people who use sign
language.

Some
of the songs we have sung on Sunday Speical Sundays have simply used the signs
of the sign language as our ‘actions’.

Each
song also has a video background that doesn’t use the sign language so much.

This
was one of those songs where it seemed good to learn the signs for the simple
chorus, but then sing the song through with the video background.

How
appropriate it was to see all manner of people who can say ‘we, your children,
come to you.

Many
people come towards the light, and among them people using walking aids and
people using wheel chairs.

I
for one was not in a mood to be asking big and troubling questions … it’s one
of those moments to sense the support of friends and family around, and one of
those moments to sense the support of God, the God who takes us under his wing
and cares for us with a care and a love that will not let us go.

The
choice of that particular song then seemed doubly appropriate. There was one other Psalm associated with the
song … Psalm 23.

I
come back to it time and again.

And
this week I have come back to it again.

It’s
a lovely Psalm as it prompts in our thoughts so many lovely images.

The LORD is my
shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his
name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death,

I will fear no evil:

for thou art with
me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me

in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

It’s
a Psalm that for me goes to the heart of the faith that is so important.

There
can be no escaping that dark valley – and sometimes it can be very dark indeed.

But
there is the promises of a presence that remains with us as we walk THROUGH the
darkness of that valley …

That’s
the promise I want to hold to now of all times.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death,

I will fear no evil:

for thou art with
me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Where
is God when I need him?

There with us through the deepest darkness.
Always at our side – even at those times when we don’t know it.

But
one question remains that I had noted to address today …

Why
does God look after us?

I
simply want to return to those few words from 1 John 4.

This
is very nature of the God we believe in.

For
he is the God of love who cares for us come what may.

Dear friends, let us love one another,
because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.8 Whoever
does not love does not know God, for God is love.9 And God
showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might
have life through him.10 This is what love is: it is not that
we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by
which our sins are forgiven.11 Dear friends, if this is how God
loved us, then we should love one another.

There
is a wonder in nature with the rhythm of life.

How
often in a family as one departs another arrives.

So
it has been for us this week too.

As
one departs, so one has arrived.

We
have a grand daughter – with the arrival of Edith Marie to
Phil and Lynsey.

Shaping our Church for tomorrow

Our sermons on Sunday mornings are exploring the way we can make that a reality.

Mapping the Church of the Future

As we re-shape the life of our church and dream dreams for the future of Highbury we are reading through Acts on Sunday evenings. Our series of sermons with the title 'Mapping the Church of the Future' is a 21st Century view of Acts.